Selection Guidelines

Games are scheduled in response to upvotes and enthusiasm in the latest voting threads, along with some benevolent guidance by the moderators. We'll try our best to choose from old and new games for each platform, but in general the top three most-upvoted games in the relevant voting thread will be chosen for discussion.

Tomb Raider is an action-adventure game set on Yamatai, an island from which a young Lara Croft must save her friends and escape while being hunted by a malevolent cult. Along with the main story, players have the option to complete multiple side quests, explore the island, revisit places, and search for challenge tombs.

I felt like the survival aspect of the game could've been emphasized much more. When I first started with an injured, cold Lara foraging for food and starting a fire to rest the night, I was excited. I thought I would be healing my injuries and staying nourished, like in MGS3. Instead, I jumped and climbed and mowed down enemies to my hearts content. It didn't feel genuine. I wanted to sneak past enemies the entire game, scrounging for supplies and fighting for my life, but I just waltzed through firefight after firefight.

I agree. The first hour or so of the game you feel like you are really stranded and fighting for survival. Once you get some weapons it's just time to play Rambo. Though I'll admit I did enjoy mowing down my enemies with a bow :)

I stuck with the bow for 90% of the game and just went headshot crazy when it became necessary. I amazed myself with how accurate I was with the mouse pointer. I relied on the pistol for most of the heavily armored guys.

As a fan of this franchise over the years I was excited to learn of a reboot. I didn't go in with much in the way of preconception, other than knowing it was a reboot and that there was said to be more of a survival element. I was intrigued at the idea of seeing Lara Croft the "inexperienced young woman" as opposed to her typical Power Character for which she is known.

I was pleased with the overall visual presentation of the environment. I found it quite well done and impressive, graphically. I was impressed with the controls which had left somethings to be desired in previous iterations. I too felt that tombs could have been more elaborate or involved, however I often found tombs of old were far too tedious and over-elaborate. These tombs at least feel realistic. I found it somewhat silly how cheap the survival aspect of the game was in the true sense of the word "survival". Apart from an early plot line, Laura never has to eat, sleep, warm herself by a fire etc... however I took something different from the description of the game as a "survival" game once the story truly began.

At the beginning of the plot, Laura is little more than a teenager. She's scared and alone. She's beaten down, half dead, and near panic and I experienced that state, right along with the character. More plot ensues, and for me, the plot was a secondary force in what drove me through this game. Many of you have pointed out that the plot was cliche and predictable. In retrospect, I would agree. However, at the time, I didn't even notice because I was so caught up in Laura being trapped in a dangerous, unknown, hostile situation with one choice: Lay down and die, or rise to the occasion. Repeatedly I felt that Laura was presented with this choice and each time I rooted for her to rise, to blossom, to evolve and emerge the strong, capable hero who we all know and (most) love. The story was a means of conveyance to get the player from point A (scared helpless) to point B (driven and determined) and the true enjoyment for me was going along with Laura on that journey. Could the story have been more captivating? Of course. But for me, it didn't have to be. At the end of the day the story told in this Tomb Raider was the prologue to an adventure I hope spans the next 10 years building on a solidly established framework of just who Laura Croft is and what drives her.

I was so caught up in Laura being trapped in a dangerous, unknown, hostile situation with one choice: Lay down and die, or rise to the occasion. Repeatedly I felt that Laura was presented with this choice and each time I rooted for her to rise, to blossom, to evolve and emerge the strong, capable hero who we all know and (most) love. The story was a means of conveyance to get the player from point A (scared helpless) to point B (driven and determined) and the true enjoyment for me was going along with Laura on that journey.

You put it down perfectly. That journey was incredible. To see Lara Croft as a fresh college grad at the beginning of the game and turn into a survivor was hugely inspirational for me as well. I saw who she was, and realized who she could become. I got very emotionally involved in that character arc since I see some of myself in Lara. Actually, I think that many people have some of Lara's potential in them. I walked away from Tomb Raider profoundly changed by what I had witnessed, and motivated to experience the same "hero's journey".

It was a pretty excellent game that had the same classic twists and story elements of previous Lara croft games mixed in with modern 3rd person controls. It was not devoid of action and suspense either which was a nice bonus.

I am a big fan of the Tomb Raider series so was pretty jazzed when I picked this up. I'll just say that I think it was the most fun Tomb Raider game I've played in awhile. They have definitely borrowed a few ideas from the Uncharted series and made it work. The artwork is gorgeous and combat was fun.

My only real complaint with the game is that the tomb raiding was pretty limited and lame. I wish the tomb bits were more then 1 room, 1 challenge to complete. But overall it was a solid reboot and I look forward to more.

Even if the tombs were the only thing they improved in the sequel was the tombs and they just threw it in a new setting, it would be absolutely amazing. The tombs really let me down, too (not that they weren't interesting to solve, but that they weren't as involved as past games where they had multiple steps to them), but most of the rest of the game was so top-notch that I only cared a little bit.

I thought it was one of the finest games I've played in a long time. Just the sheer desperation and "Why the hell is everything trying to kill me?!?!" could not have been portrayed better. I actually felt her panic. I only wish that they would have kept the need to eat, sleep, etc... beyond the first part of the game, but I guess I understand why it had to go. It would have been detrimental to the pace of the game. I haven't been that emotionally involved in a character is years. I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the game, the last time I felt like that was the FIRST Call of Duty. Excellent game, can't wait for more (don't give a rat's ass about multiplayer).

I liked it a lot. This is gonna be a HUGE post (more or less a review) because I feel like this game took a lot of unwarranted flak, especially when I see people praise Far Cry 3 and bash Tomb Raider, even through FC3 got bastardized by big studios way more than the most recent Tomb Raider did. It felt to me like a standard AAA, big budget title, you know, flashy cut scenes, QTEs and scripted moments, plenty of tutorials, etc, but at the same time, it sort of did those things right. It's a really interesting blend of shooting and platforming, potentially a better "game" than Uncharted even. I say this because Uncharted has the better story, delivery and offers what is a better over-all experience because of this, where as Tomb Raider's base gameplay mechanics feel superior to Uncharted's. That said, I feel like Uncharted does set pieces better. Tomb Raider relied too much on falling through collapsing buildings (you fall or slide down something, like, twice per hour in Tomb Raider), there's nothing like the train sequence in Uncharted 2.

The platforming is better than Uncharted over-all though, imo. I liked how it moved the series towards the Metroidvania realm. An open world that you must progress through slowly, unlocking new areas as you upgrade your arsenal. I enjoyed that and all the little details thrown into the platforming and exploration. For example, quest markers. In Far Cry 3 you ALWAYS have an annoying quest marker on your HUD. In Tomb Raider, the only way to see your quest marker is by turning on your hunter vision and standing still. It's unobtrusive and you rarely even have a visible HUD while exploring. That's good AAA game design. Again, to go back to the Far Cry 3 comparisons. In FC3 you just buy treasure maps and boom, all the secrets are revealed. In Tomb Raider you have to actually find them, and even then not every collectable is revealed on your HUD. These platforming sections are a breath of fresh air after the intense combat. You get to explore at your leisure and use your new items in previous hub areas to see what else there is to find. Or even little things, like when you're climbing a rock wall with your axe, if you hit A to jump to a higher portion you'd have to hit X again to reattach to the wall. Many other games would simply have you reattach automatically as opposed to requiring you do it manually. Sometimes the jumping appears to be a bit "sticky" but you can still miss, and I feel as if that happens a bit more so than in Uncharted. Neither game requires much skill for the platforming, but Tomb Raider slightly beats out Uncharted in that regard.

As for the combat, I liked how you only had 4 weapons that were upgraded as the game went on, as well as the customization options. They kept everything tidy and streamlined. It's not like other shooters with their multiple variations on the same weapon type, you just have a singular weapon of each type (that can also serve as a tool) that you upgrade to suit your needs. The game wasn't especially hard or anything, even on the highest difficulty, but I liked how aggressive the enemy AI could be at times. It was fun enough and balanced well enough with the platforming.

The story wasn't anything great, pretty standard adventure story, obviously influenced by movies and shows like Indiana Jones and Lost. I'm more of a ludologist than a narrativist or whatever, so I could care less about the quality of a story in a game unless it actually served the gameplay well. Even the worst video game story is serviceable in my eyes, I'm here for the gameplay, a good story is icing on the cake for me. That said, I enjoyed being able to learn about the island's history through artifacts and journals. I would say that part of the storytelling process was well done, the exposition, since it was intertwined with the gameplay to a degree. Hey, it's almost as if the key to telling good stories in video games is to tell it through the gameplay, but that's a discussion for another time.

Despite what I said about the story before, I DO have a problem with the amount of death in the game. People have talked enough about the ludo-narrative dissonance caused by Lara's actions (survivor turned mass murderer within a matter of minutes), but I feel like what really pulled me out of the game more so than that (because I mean, action movies exist) was the amount of death on the island. Think about it, you have this group of people on the island, fairly insane, sure, but still smart enough to all communicate and build shelter and survive, and yet they live in filth, with piles of bodies all around them. It makes no sense. I get that they're insane, but they clearly have a sense of order. They can read and write and set themselves up a shantytown, I don't believe it would be full of as many bodies as it is. The game has a big preoccupation with death that was often really off putting. It wanted to be a fun adventure like Uncharted, but it also wanted to be a dark, gritty reboot that veers into pseudo-horror at times (there were at least two references to The Descent, a movie also about British female survival), and those two tones clashed with each other.

Over-all though, I thought it was a great game, and despite some tonal issues, the gameplay itself was very enjoyable, and I'm just a sucker for a good adventure. I'd lost this comfortably with games like Arkham Asylum, Sleeping Dogs and Dishonored as AAA titles that cater to a casual audience but have hardcore sensibilities.

Think about it, you have this group of people on the island, fairly insane, sure, but still smart enough to all communicate and build shelter and survive, and yet they live in filth, with piles of bodies all around them. It makes no sense. I get that they're insane, but they clearly have a sense of order. They can read and write and set themselves up a shantytown, I don't believe it would be full of as many bodies as it is.

This was my biggest gripe. How old does Mathias have to be for there to be such an enormous amount of henchmen available, ready to die for their cause? I'm forgiving the men from the distant past, i.e. WWII soldiers, samurai, etc but like actual henchmen, there were hundreds. The process, as I understand it, was you take a bunch of stranded people, toss em in a pit where they turn into cannibals and desperate inhuman people, then recruit them. But the sheer number is just so illogical. Surely people must have observed the fact that hundreds of men disappeared without a trace within 40 years by traveling to this island.

Exactly, they did a poor job of establishing your enemies in the game, and it's weird because, on one hand, they sort of did a good job, I know all their history and how they function, but at the same time, it just doesn't add up with what's presented in game or make all that much sense.

I think the easiest way for them to solve this would have been to cut down drastically on the amount of "human" enemies and had you fight mostly the weird samurai people from the end of the game or some other supernatural protagonist. Like maybe even throw in some zombified WW2 soldiers or something so they could keep the gunplay. This way you could kill humanoid creatures throughout the game without bringing up the issue of Lara's morality and all the ludonarrative dissonance because she's not actually killing people.

Multiplayer had a significant detrimental impact on this game, as it does every game, and when I heard that all of the DLC is also devoted to multiplayer, I wanted to cry. It also irritated me that there was little need to "figure anything out" with everything scripted out in terms of white chalk or jagged mountains/walls.

No real outfits for single player either bugged me, as did the promise that it was "open world" and "survival" was key. Obviously, neither are the case.

Decent game, great graphics, Camilla Luddington acted her heart out, but the designers just missed the mark.

I didn´t like the story or the characters it was very clichéd and expected but worse than that it didn´t have sense of self awareness or self irony. Hitman Abolution for example in comparison knew how ridiculous its story was so I found its story much more bearable.

I found the gameplay to be entirely average. It was nothing more than your standard 3rd person shooter. I had gone into it expecting it to be open world due to taking in information wrong and was very disappointed it was so linear with no real exploration. Having come off Far cry 3, you can see why this might be a let down. But it was okay, average, playable.

The story on the other hand completely and utterly failed. I am now 8 hours in and I found every cut scene where Lara is supposed to be a survivor to be absolutely hilarious. The game starts with her being stabbed in the stomach by a stick and yet shes happily rock climbing a few hours later. She freezes in the rain, yet is happy to run around in the snow dressed the same with no ill effect. The survival element is completely missing from the gameplay and in the cut scenes its so over the top it becomes slap stick. The death scenes are taken directly from murder porn type horror films and at this stage the shock value has gone and its just funny to see how badly its animated and fake the screams sound. The same way horror movies in the 80s threw buckets of corn syrup around.

I had a major bug at release where whenever I took damage my screen would black out entirely, I struggled through it for a bit but got to a point it was just impossible to advance with it, put it down and never wanted to pick it up again.

I would recommend picking it up when its on sale for 50% off, its worth that sort of money. I'm just sad that we won't see another game like Underworld, which was fantastic and a much better game than this was. But it had no marketing, no one played it and the game has been forgotten to the sands of time.

I liked this game overall (I finished it in two 5 hour sittings) it was pretty solid however I have a few complaints.

None of the puzzles were challenging in the slightest even within the optional tombs. I get that they were trying to change the series to an action game However I think it should have stuck to it roots more.

I thought the combat was fine but there was to much of it the game just threw enemy after enemy at you it seemed very unrealistic and kind of ruined the story a bit.

The story itself was somewhat compelling but average and predicable I cant much expand on this without spoilers so ill leave it there.

Tomb Raider 2013 has excellent setting, visuals, combat mechanics and lead character development. However, a weak secondary cast, predictable main story and forgettable multi-player are detrimental to the game. Overall, I enjoyed the hell out of this Tomb Raider. The platforming, gunfights and exploration of the wholly engrossing island environment are the core of the game and it is superbly executed. One indication of this game's quality is in the metacritic user score where tomb raider is on the heels of Bioshock infinite at the top of the pack.

The game play is fun, and doesn't get too repetitive. In a bigger picture sense, the story is okay. What kept pulling me out of the game was the full on retard decisions Lara kept making. There's times when you crawl into a dark pit to follow some murderer, but not when your main objective is to run away and escape. Even the level design was senseless. Who jumps onto the side of a giant wooden boat and scales around the edges? It's weird and out of place. Every time I wanted to do something sensical, the game would prevent me from doing it, even with its own tools and game play logic. I wouldn't mind all of this if it was a goofy super human type character, but the game tried to be all serious. All I knew was that I was Lara, a stealthy motherfucking assassin with a bow who killed with ruthless precision, until a cut scene came and I put my bow away and ran into a crowd of bad guys and cried about nothing and got captured AGAIN.

Finish the game yesterday. I had never played a Tomb Raider game before but liked Uncharted which was my primary reasoning for purchasing the game. I was really enjoying the game at first. The level that took place at the burning mansion was so awesome and was definitely my favorite moment in the game. Everything after that kind of paled in comparison. Seeing the Endurance again was amazing but I wish there was more platforming in it.

Combat was fun for most of the game and I used the bow for the majority of the game. It kind of got annoying when enemies got more and more armor though which was when I would use guns. The level where you are in the forest fighting wolves and Russians was really cool at first because it was so different than the rest of the game but the lack of cover and enemies automatically homing in on you if you were caught was really dumb.